NCJ

[Barry Martz]

Still no NCJ here.....3/25/94 

de KI8W  NORTHERN-mail by stagecoach-MICHIGAN

--



>From tree at cmicro.com (Larry Tyree)  Sat Mar 26 00:07:50 1994
From: tree at cmicro.com (Larry Tyree) (Larry Tyree)
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 16:07:50 PST
Subject: Single-Multi
Message-ID: <9403260007.AA22470 at cmicro.com>


Steve, N2IC, raises some good points about Single-Multi.  If you have your
NCJ, you can read about operating the sprint with Single-Multi.  It did
work during the brief times two bands were active at the same time (not
very much this time).

While it is still possible to make the top ten in a major contest like
the SS without using single-multi, I think it will soon be rare.  I 
have recently started using it because I don't believe I will ever win
without doing it (except maybe from KP4).  

The question to ponder is the one Steve raises: Is this a turnoff to the
newcomer?  I would like to think continuous improvement in operator 
techniques is a good thing that will keep this game interesting for all.

I am very interested in hearing comments from non Single-Multi people.

Tree

>From dcurtis at mipos2.intel.com (Dave Curtis)  Sat Mar 26 01:22:15 1994
From: dcurtis at mipos2.intel.com (Dave Curtis) (Dave Curtis)
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 17:22:15 PST
Subject: Single-Multi
Message-ID: <9403260122.AA06506 at climax.intel.com>

Tree on the subject of single-op/multi-xmit:

<stuff deleted> 
> The question to ponder is the one Steve raises: Is this a turnoff to the
> newcomer?  I would like to think continuous improvement in operator 
> techniques is a good thing that will keep this game interesting for all.
> 
> I am very interested in hearing comments from non Single-Multi people.
> 
> Tree
> 

The first (and only) time I have ever run single-multi is
in the VHF test last January (also my first VHF test).
I definitely qualify as an "also ran" contester, still working
on the skills it takes to be competitive.

For my part, I found the challenge of keeping two radios
(and sometimes 3) going was a real gas. Of course, in VHF
the strategy is a little different -- CQ on 50/144 and move
people up through your other bands.  Trying to keep the pipeline
full, meet up on other bands, and log it all was good fun.

Seems to me the "turn-off", if any, is in the expense.  But it
seems to me that an older technology xcvr ($350) without a linear
would get me all the excitement I could handle until my skills
improve.  Then add a half-gallon ($350) linear when my brain-ware
is up to the improved rate.  Not really large bucks here to add
a second rig.  Ants are more of an issue -- kinda hard for
Joe-tribander to be effective on 20/15 at the same time.

73, Dave "Still trying not to panic" NG0X


>From Peter Jennings <pjenning at comix.santa-cruz.ca.us>  Sat Mar 26 00:26:15 1994
From: Peter Jennings <pjenning at comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> (Peter Jennings)
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 16:26:15 PST
Subject: NCJ arrives on left coast
Message-ID: <9403251626.aa04029 at comix.Santa-Cruz.Ca.US>

 
> Still waiting for my NCJ out here in the US mail black hole.  Anyone else
> in the USA still waiting, or is it time for a phone call to Newington ?
 
Arrived today in downtown Ben Lomond, CA. It would have been faster to
walk over to Trey's and read the prepress copy.
 
Of course, I got a letter from England last week that was posted on
September 16. In England they post instead of mailing. And small
articles go in packets. But do they call it epost? Confused on the left
coast.
 
Peter
--
AB6WM/G0RZJ                              peterj at netcom.com

>From XMSJ29A at prodigy.com (MR JAMES A WHITE)  Sat Mar 26 05:57:14 1994
From: XMSJ29A at prodigy.com (MR JAMES A WHITE) (MR JAMES A WHITE)
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 00:57:14 EST
Subject: Single Multi vs CT vs Memory Keyers vs..
Message-ID: <013.00507502.XMSJ29A at prodigy.com>

Single - Multi is just the further evolution of contesting as far as one
individuals ability to amass the most points.  I know historically there
were those who thought that memory keyers would "ruin it"...just like some
feel that the use of real-contest-time computer software such as CT "ruins it"....

In my eyes all of the above "enhance it"...all of these allow your brain
the opportunity to make more QSOs...and therefore are good. NO, I do not
favour simultaneous CQing but if you can go multi RX more power to ya.

The few times I have tried it I loved the challenge of concentrating on
what wuz what...I have to physically place one radio to the left and one to
the right...the appropriate switch must toggle left/right and be placed in
between them...all for me to be able to tell which knob to
grab-SOMETIMES!...it is a thrill, and if one can master the skill I feel he
deserves those fruits.

Not being affiliated with any contest newcomers (yet) I do not know if
multi-RX is any more intimidating than CT or simultaneously sending CW with
one hand while writing with another and turning the rotor with a foot
switch! I personally have found these kinda skills the real fun of a
contest weekend-why not two radios, lets challenge those few remaining gray
cells left after last years Dayton Hospitality Suites.

Like I say I don't know any new contest-kids who might be intimidated by
it, but my read of it is that to the young it would kinda be like being
able to play Nintendo and Sega simultaneously, a kid who could do that
would be cool, so why wouldn't two radios be cool, too, dudes?   .

Contesting is cool....

...huh, huh...yeah contesting is cool.

Gimme the lighter...huh...huh...no-for the heatshrink!


....mediocrity, yecch...let's not turn contesting into something that
mustn't overly challenge the newcomer.......Society currently rewards the
average-thank goodness contesting is anything but that to me....not to
sound like Rush Limbaugh, but heah-VHF contesting turned one teenager into
a one day nobel prize winner, seems like the right stuff to me........my
Rush icon is W7RM, anyway....competition breeds things good an awful lot
more often than it does batons.

A second radio is an enhancement - and not something a newcomer will start
out with....but had I been exposed to it as an operating style 20 years ago
I wouldn't think anything of it now...the new guys will think of it as
second nature in the next generation. I was fortunate enough to sit next to
K1ZND on 40 CW at W2PV during my early contesting years-he wrote with one
hand while sending with another---it was very effective, so I taught it to
myself. Any lil edge in a contest is beneficial, as KM9P pointed out a
while back, those lil things can all add up if that is your agenda and what
they add up to is victory.

CUL Dayton-yes - like always I have done a 180 and AM going-I'll be there
to support KR2J-I think he will need protection from the propagationaly impaired......73
                        Jim, K1ZX


>From barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner)  Sat Mar 26 12:10:45 1994
From: barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner) (Barry Kutner)
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 12:10:45 GMT
Subject: Single-Multi
Message-ID: <moNsJc1w165w at w2up.wells.com>

I don't think sinle-multi will turn off the newcomer, but may turn
off the Joe Average contester with one tower and a tribander and one
radio.  It certainly takes significantly more hardware to do single-
multi effectively. While a TS450 and a vertical could help as a
second rig, it sure won't be competitive.
I don't know what the answer is - I don't think another category
would help, because there are enough categories now, and it would
be a turnoff to the guys that do single-multi by narrowing the field.
73 Barry


Barry N. Kutner, W2UP       Usenet/Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
Newtown, PA                 Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
                            Packet Cluster: W2UP >K2TW (FRC)
.......................................................................


>From oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills)  Sat Mar 26 18:02:26 1994
From: oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) (Derek Wills)
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 12:02:26 CST
Subject: single-multi
Message-ID: <9403261802.AA07394 at astro.as.utexas.edu>

What are the technical limitations to having several signals on 
different bands at *almost* the same time?   If you split a cw
dash into pulses at the millisecond level such that the ear still
hears a continuous dash, could you be sending cw on another frequency
where the dashes are also split into millisecond pulses but out of
phase with the other frequency?  i.e. you simultaneously send (as
the C of a CQ):

On 20m:      - - - - - - - - -       - - -     - - - - - - - -   - - -

On 15m:       - - - - - - - - -       - - -     - - - - - - - -   - - - 

and there is only one signal transmitted at any instant.  Perhaps you
can subdivide it even more and have several signals going.  I dunno!
But the pulsar in the Crab Nebula is only on for a short time once 
every 30 msecs and it looks like a continuous signal to the eye - same
(only less so) with fluorescent lights.

Perhaps you could be on 5 bands by having a 20% duty cycle on each
band?    There's probably something fundamentally wrong with this,
e.g. a well-known Somebody's Theorem; e.g. if a pulse lasts 1 msec it
produces a signal 1 KHz wide (not that this would deter any Real
Contester, in fact they'd probably welcome it).

Duh.


Derek AA5BT oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu